About us

Hosts Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay have set themselves the goal of listening to Tom Waits's back catalogue from beginning to end, and devoting each episode to discussing each track. Both Martin and Sam are huge Waits fans, and each brings his own perspective on song-writing, as well as their own preferences in terms of Waits's varied musical styles.

Sam is an actor/musician who works mostly in theatre. He's a pianist, accordionist and technically incompetent brass player who keeps his own songwriting as secretive as possible. He lives in South London with his girlfriend and 4-year old daughter, at least one of whom listens to Tom Waits only under duress. Tweet at @sampay

Guest Hosts:

Heath Sledge is a writer and editor based in Chapel Hill NC. She lives with an hilarious 11-year-old son, a professional musician husband, and a very fluffy Akita, has five tattoos and four more planned, and can be found at heathsledge.com and @marigolds where she shares Useful Writing Content and garbage memes in equal measure.

Robert Sledge began playing bass guitar at the age of eleven. His brother was playing guitar at his house so he also learned how to play the guitar at the same time. Before playing with Ben Folds Five he was bassist for the bands Toxic Popsickle and Lexx Luthor (with Godsmack's Sully Erna). He hasn't told us where you can find him... somewhere in Chapel Hill presumably...?

Ross Sutherland is a writer and filmmaker from Edinburgh. He wrote and presented BBC2's Missing Episode, and is a regular contributor to Radio 4's Short Cuts. He is also the writer/producer of the experimental writing podcast, Imaginary Advice. Find him at www.imaginaryadvice.com and @rossgsutherland

Phoebe Judge is the host & co-creator of the podcast Criminal. Her work in public radio has won multiple Edward R. Murrow and Associated Press awards. She attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, and can be found at thisiscriminal.com and @PhoebeVJudge

Lauren Spohrer is the co-creator of the podcast Criminal. Before Criminal, Lauren was a producer at NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and Bryant Park Project, and APM’s The Story with Dick Gordon. She has a Master’s degree in fiction writing from Columbia University, and is the founder of the online literary magazine Two Serious Ladies. Find her at thisiscriminal.com and @laurenspohrer

Jon Ronson is a journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, and radio presenter. He has published many books, made several BBC and Channel 4 Television documentary films, and co-wrote the movies Frank and Okja. His new Audible podcast, The Butterfly Effect, can be heard for free through Apple Podcasts. Find him at jonronson.com and @jonronson

John Hodgman is a writer, comedian, and actor. He is the author of three books of fake facts and invented trivia, and is the host of the popular Judge John Hodgman podcast, where he settles serious disputes between real people, such as “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” and “Should we tell our children the TRUTH about Santa Claus.” Find him @hodgman

Købi Omenaka is a serial podcaster, podcast fan and manchild. He is a huge cinephile and music fan and loves to tell people all about the best films on Netflix via the podcast Flixwatcher along with co host Helen. Find him @Kobestarr

Joanna Neary is a Writer, Illustrator & Comedian. You can see her illustrations over at Standard Issue, a brilliant on-line magazine, and find her @MsJoNeary

Philippa Spanos works in TV broadcasting for the Food Network. Due to an extreme phobia of modern technology, she cannot be found on Twitter. In fact these podcasts might be the only electronic audible proof that she ever existed...

Sarah Cook is very much not in the podcasting business, working for charities and social enterprises in London. She has a name too common for twitter, with a quiet account at @giveforribs

Miranda Zaltzman is a lawyer and real person. She's a bit busy dealing with her husband to be on twitter.

Andy Zaltzman is the original voice of The Bugle. He can pun for fun. You can hear Andy Satirising for hire around the world, ticket info via http://andyzaltzman.co.uk/ He can also be found scoring on Test Match Special and talking about cricket on the Cricket Sadist Hour podcast. See @hellobuglers and @ZaltzCricket

Kit Lovelace is a writer/journalist type, who mainly writes about pop music and media gossip. He also runs Romantic Misadventure – a live storytelling night about people's most horrifying dating disasters – which he plugs ceaselessly on Twitter as @kitlovelace

Callum Hughes is an actor, musician and writer, trained at Rose Bruford College where he specialised in American Theatre Arts. He is a founding member of Blind Tiger Theatre, and has had ten plays professionally produced on both sides of the atlantic. He is also a drummer, mediocre pianist, an ok guitarist, terrible bassist and passable ukelele player. He can be found @callumphughes or at www.callumpatrickhughes.co.uk

Lucy Dallas is in Spirit of Play, who have featured on the Nature podcast, The Book Show, at the Green Man festival, Bethnal Green Working Mens Club and other less salubrious outlets... You can listen to them here and get in touch with them at spiritofplay1@gmail.com

Jeffrey Cranor co-writes the hit podcast, novel and touring live show Welcome to Night Vale. He has also written more than one hundred short plays with the New York Neo-Futurists, co-wrote and co-performed a two-man show about time travel with Joseph Fink, and collaborated with choreographer (also wife) Jillian Sweeney to create three full-length dance pieces. Jeffrey lives in New York State, and can be found at www.welcometonightvale.com and @happierman

Andrea Solomon is a David Bowie obsessive who is currently trying to learn to love Tom Waits. She left an entirely unsuitable career in investment banking for a life working in children's healthcare and occasionally being mistaken for Tilda Swinton. If she ever returns to Twitter you'll find her @andreamaven

Catherine Hirst had a career as a writer and teacher before having a midlife crisis and returning to full-time university to study for a degree in psychology. She is singularly unqualified to appear on a music podcast, except perhaps for the years spent wage-slaving behind the counter of a record store in the States. Find her mostly retweeting other people's content on Twitter @craftyexpat

Isy Suttie is a comedian, actress and writer known for playing Dobby in Channel 4's Peep Show and for her Sony-award winning BBC Radio 4 show, Isy Suttie's Love Letters. Her first book, The Actual One, was published in January 2016. Find her at isysuttie.com

Alice Sanders is a freelance writer. She writes articles, audio description, fiction and scripts. She's also an improviser who performs in several troupes including The Alphabetties, The Pioneers and Whose Army. Follow her on Twitter @wernerspenguin

When she isn't 'umming' her way through a Tom Waits podcast, Anna Turrell works in sustainability. Now based in London after a stint in Asia, Anna tries to make the most of the capital's numerous gigs and performances. Even the crappy ones. Find her @anna_turrell

Song by Song is a review show - all music extracts and album artwork used for review/illustrative purposes. We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.